Category Archives: Comics

I promised you a comic last weekend. But all the time I can spare is going into studying for Cal, or filling out uni applications, or running after the various companies that have been giving me the run-around. And somehow trying to squeeze in some time for a personal life.

So I won’t promise a comic this week, because I know I won’t follow through. Although I could always just upload some sketches… No, I’ll just say the comic is on hiatus until mid-April. Yeah. Fuckin’ hiatus before it really gets started. Fuckin’ great, right?

Hrm. Over the summer there’ll be no new BSG, no new Lost, and probably no new Doctor Who (I’m not sure how BBC times its releases). So what the fuck else will I be doing but drawing comics? Ha!

Ack, but I still have to get the PNO Hosting site up so I can be a little more credible. “Yeah, it’s a hosting company. Doesn’t have a website yet…”

I’m currently computerless, thanks to my Compaq having a really shitty power system. I’m forced to use my flat-mate’s machine for the time being, or Jake‘s, when I’m over. But I have been doing a fair amount of sketching and writing, and I’ve got some concepts for miniseries. I think I’m moving away from the “let’s be dumb and offensive” strips, and toward some short-story type strips. I think it will be interesting to have multiple story arcs that don’t necessarily have common characters, and don’t necessarily take place in the same reality. You’ll see what I mean.

Also, thanks to a comment by Torsten, I’ve been thinking about typography. I think that I have pretty much decided that the old-style all-caps typography is lame. From now on I’ll be writing in mixed case. A big reason for this, aside from readability, is that there is a lot of information conveyed in case. Case can be an important indicator that a word is a proper noun, and can be used for emphasis, as long as one doesn’t abuse it.

So when I get my computer back I’ll be doing some more comics. According to the UPS site, I ought to get it back some time tomorrow. Hopefully this means the next comic will be ready for next weekend.

No, seriously. All this week I’ve been busting my hump studying. This leaves me precious little time for other things, and since I have yet to advance to the point where I can rattle off a comic in a couple of hours I decided I had to sacrifice your comic-reading pleasure for the sake of my getting into school.

Next weekend is my first exam, though. I think I’ll do fine: it’s on Algebra & Geometry, which I am pretty good at. The Calculus will be more difficult, but I don’t forsee it being too much of a challenge.

Oh, in other news, I’m starting physiotherapy tomorrow. This will be weird.

This is a sketch of a character who may turn up in future WIP strips. I’ve been considering a story arc based on the Ravenloft game that Julien runs, and Ephraim is the character I play.

He has a lot of depth of character to explore and lots of internal conflict, which is why I thought a series of strips about him might be interesting. I’ve mocked one up already, but I have yet to decide whether the strips will simply chronicle what goes on in the game or give more insight into Ephraim’s past.

Update: Ephraim’s hood was looking way too much like hair. I fixed that. Also, NO HE IS NOT AN ARMLESS MIDGET!

It’s late. I know. Like, two days. That sucks, but it really was because I was busy doing medical stuff last week. I had three appointments in as many days, and I got injected with so many different substances that I <think up funny college-related joke here>!

So I’m really getting the hang of this whole comic thing, and the whole drawing thing. I really like my roommate’s tablet; as soon as I have some disposable income I’m buying myself one. If for no other reason then so I don’t feel guilty when I drool on it.

I was playing around a lot with layers on this strip. I had one layer for outlines, another for fill, another for backgrounds and another for details like eyes — for each panel. I will gradually refine my technique and improve over time, but I think I got off to a pretty decent start. I tell you, the hardest part is getting a strip out every week. On the up side, it’s getting me blogging again. I don’t know exactly what I’m going to do once I go back to work, but I’ll figure something out.

Oh, and I need to create a separate website — or at least a category template — for the comic.

I finally got around to finishing off the first installment of my new comic strip. It’s an experiment, a way to get me to create content regularly. The idea is that by forcing myself to upload something, anything, once a week I will increase my creativity and thence my overall satisfaction with my life. Let’s see if this works.

I haven’t decided yet what I’m going to do about site design — am I going to just slap all the comics on the front page like this, or will I create a second site or what? Hey, how’s about giving me your suggestion in the comments? Yeah, fob off the work on my readers. W00t.